Be Realistic About High Blood Pressure

For many people who were formerly without health insurance now being covered, a new trend has emerged that has health experts worrying that better healthcare coverage isn’t going to translate into better health.

It seems counterintuitive to some that adding preventive care and better coverage for chronic conditions may contribute to a worsening of health overall, but this is precisely what will happen if people aren’t willing to be realistic with their approaches to heath an wellness on a personal level.

Adding fuel to the top 3 high blood pressure misconceptions that have abounded for many years is the troubling dynamic that with newly covered benefits comes the license to take more risks with one’s health than would be taken if no safety net were available.

That’s not to say that people don’t deserve to have coverage- that’s an argument for a different website. What’s at issue here is the problematic trifecta of health evils that need to be addressed if you are among the millions of people suffering from hypertension, or high blood pressure.

Myth number one: Borderline hypertension is nothing to worry about for now. The opposite is actually true- it is easier to drop high blood pressure back down to safe and normal numbers before it gets ‘out of control.’ The DASH diet or other similar food choice regimen, coupled with exercise, is much more effective before the problem becomes acutely dangerous.

Myth number two: Until both systolic and diastolic numbers are high, it’s no big deal. This is also completely false, because for either number to be too high you are stressing out the walls of your blood vessels unnecessarily. Over time and untreated, the arteries begin to harden. This is reversible, but more importantly, it’s preventable.

Myth number three: Now that I have insurance, getting blood pressure back down to normal is as easy as getting the prescription blood pressure pills I have not been able to afford until now. This is partly true and partly false. The myth part is that blood pressure can be safely regulated by pills. Pharmaceuticals carry side effects, some of them very dangerous. Some even cause conditions that would require more pills, like a diuretic.

The true part is that getting blood pressure back down to normal can be easy. But it doesn’t need “Big Pharma’s” intervention- the safest and most effective way is still the natural and proven way- without drugs.